Page 73 of One of Us Is Guilty

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘It’s not just your situation – it’s mine. I work for you. We only just met, really.’

‘Of course, no problem. So what do you like to do in your spare time?’

‘What spare time? Your office is pretty busy, but you know, at the weekends I like to read and go for a long run. Sometimes I just chill in bed the whole day and watch old movies.’

He nodded, and said that sounded fun. I knew what I wanted to say next, but wondered if it was too soon. Was I playing this at the right pace? I took the chance.

‘What I really love is the ocean,’ I said, and he leaned forward, put his elbows on the table and gazed into my eyes.

‘My parents moved around a lot – my father was in the military. But I remember we had five good years in Monterey, at the Presidio. In the summertime, me and my friends would cycle to Del Monte beach and just spend the whole day there. It’s so beautiful. Those summers used to feel like they lasted for a whole year. If I wasn’t swimming, I would just sit and stare at the water. It was so peaceful, especially early in the morning. Before we moved to Monterey, I’d never seen the ocean, but it got into my bones. I love it so much. That’s the one drawback to living in the city. Yeah, there’s beaches, like, hours away, but it’s not the same. It’s too crowded. There’s too much noise.’

‘You know I have a house in the Hamptons? A beach house?’

‘No way,’ I lied.

‘It’s amazing. I get up in the morning and stare out at the ocean, then I get coffee and walk right out my back door onto the beach. And there’s no one else around. Just the sound of the waves hitting the shore.’

‘That sounds like heaven,’ I said.

‘Would you like to come out there with me sometime? Maybe for a weekend?’

I couldn’t believe my luck. Yes, I said. I would like that very much.

I knew he had a house in East Hampton. I’d stared at it for hours on Google Maps. I’d found the floor plans in the District Planning office and studied them. I’d walked past it on that same beach dozens of times. And a dozen times more I’d run past the driveway on the country road leading to it. I knew who his nearest neighbors were, and even got a tour of their property, posing as a potential buyer, to see if I could get a better look at Patrick’s house. I knew everything it was possible to know about it.

But I’d never been inside.

If I played this right, then that was about to change.

I could feel my pulse quickening, and I let the excitement bleed into my voice.

I said, ‘I’d love to spend a weekend with you in the Hamptons.’

‘Then that’s a date,’ said Patrick.

Pain. Loss. Grief.

These were my companions. These were my guiding stars.

They had led me here.

They would lead me to the truth. The truth was in that house in East Hampton. I knew it in my heart.

Pain, loss and grief don’t take things away from you, not always. If you use them right, they can give you something back.

They would give me revenge.

29

Bloch

The sun was disappearing behind the black trees when Winchester had finished telling all he knew of the Teresa Chase case to Bloch and Lake. The window behind him framed the sunset perfectly. A row of fields stretched to the horizon and the distant tree line. So involved in telling his story, Winchester hadn’t seemed to notice the dying light. The small kitchen was now dark, and only when he had finished, and picked up his empty coffee cup, did he flick on the light switch as he made his way to the machine for a refill.

Bloch was glad of the light. The tale was dark enough, and so perhaps it had been fitting for Winchester to tell it while the light faded into dusk.

He was convinced the body that had been found in the woods by a father and son hunting had been the body of Teresa Chase. Absent her head, of course. The discovery had been made some months after Teresa had reportedly been swept out to sea. Ordinarily, when a partial body is recovered, there are procedures and investigations that in most cases lead to a positive identification.

The fingerprints taken from the body were not in the system.